Written by

Steve Schrader

Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

We should have know something was up before the game, when the Dropkick Murphys performed both the national anthem and their own anthem, “Shipping Up to Boston,” a tune you may know from “The Departed.”

And Saturday night, the Tigers were cast in the movie’s title role.

It’s all over, with their 5-2 loss in the ALCS to the Red Sox. No Game 7 tonight, no rematch with St. Louis in the World Series.

How anticlimactic. How many good starts by their aces can they waste? We know what happened to Miguel Cabrera, but where was Prince Fielder? And the defense? (That’s a question for the Big House, too.)

Do you blame Jim Leyland?

These are questions that aren’t going to go away all winter, though some of the current team surely will.

Outtakes

■ Fox play-by-play man Joe Buck bailed out Tigers catcher Alex Avila when a Fox “Sounds of the Game” piece made it look like he was ignoring umpire Dan Iassogna — who was miked — inquiring about his health. Said Buck: “Alex is one of the most cordial guys you’re going to meet in baseball. It wasn’t just Iassogna talking and getting no response. It’s just that Alex isn’t wearing a mike, so you can’t hear what he said back.”

It also didn’t help that Avila was wearing his mask.

■ Speaking of which, after Avila got hit in the mask by a foul tip later, Iassogna said: “He gets beat up like nobody’s business.”

And judging by Twitter, some of the Boston media and fans thought Fox spent way too much time talking about Avila.

■ Justin Verlander was wearing a mike for another of those in-game interviews and waiting to see if he’d be pitching a Game 7: “I think it takes more out of you sitting here watching these games than I think it does pitching. Your heart’s beating the whole time and it’s pretty stressful.”

■ Game analyst Tim McCarver also started pondering a potential Game 7, “if there’s a tomorrow night.”

Said Buck: “I hope there’s a tomorrow night. I just don’t know if there’s a game tomorrow night.”

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You know, it doesn’t seem as funny now.

Back in the studio

■ Fox reporter Ken Rosenthal, talking pregame about Boston’s Mike Napoli: “Now you wouldn’t know it from looking at his beard, but this is a player who pays great attention to detail in every aspect of the game.”

Quick tweets

■ Splat! Pete Abraham, Boston Globe, after Prince Fielder added to his Greatest Slides Collection with a belly flop that landed well short of the bag when he tried to get back to third in a sixth-inning rundown: “Fielder looked like King Kong Bundy on that flop.”

■ Ben Verlander, late in the game: “The way these fans are acting towards our family section is despicable. #Classless”

Quick hits

■ Austin Jackson, interviewed on the Channel 2 pregame show, on what batting eighth has meant to him: “I think it’s just given me a chance to relax a little bit and just go out and play the game and, you know, not worry about having to get on base so much. Like I said, it’s just been relaxing me lots.”

■ An unnamed team exec — after Game 5, in which Avila and Boston catcher David Ross were both hit in collisions at the plate — told ESPN’s Buster Olney that MLB might be ready to discuss banning the play: “At this point, I don't know who would argue to keep it, or what their argument would be. ... With catchers dropping like flies all over the place with concussions, it’s dumb.”

■ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, after the Cardinals dispatched of those Mickey Mouse Dodgers on Friday night: “Busch Stadium was the happiest place on earth.”

■ Bill Baer, writing at ESPN.com, put Tigers starter Max Scherzer on his list of “big names who could be traded,” assuming they can’t afford another big contract, since they’re already paying so much to Cabrera, Verlander and, ahem, Fielder.